When Mennonites are not busy working all day, there is one activity they’ll always make time for:
Zoat Knacken
Zoat Knacken is another Plautdietsch phrase which literally translates to “cracking sunflower seeds.” A better translation would be cracking and eating sunflower seeds. Mennonites love their seeds, they consume it like it’s crack. In fact, Mennonites eat so much of it that often they just throw the shells on the ground and sweep it up in the end.
The sunflower seeds will make their appearance at family reunions, any type of social event, or in the evenings to wind down before bed. It is an unspoken rule to always have a batch ready should any of the aforementioned occasions arise.
How it’s prepared.
Mennonites like their seeds a bit different than how North America typically prepares them. Most store purchased sunflower seeds are salted whereas we just spread them equally on a plate, bake them in the oven for about half of an hour and bam! they’re good to go.
(4.00 out of 5)
November 1, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Holy crap you aren’t kidding…it’s a Mennonite tradition to consume mass amounts of sunflower seeds. My husband and I are Mennonite and we go through bags upon bags of Giant Brand sunflower seeds on a weekly basis…at least 4 big bags a week, then figure in the Alt Kolonier guys buying their stock…oy vey!
January 21, 2012 at 4:01 pm
We never did that but once in awhile. I feed them to our birds in the birdfeeder!! LOL I love them so I wouldn’t mind eating them more. They are very good for us!!!